Where's the Beef?

Well, life down here has been busy lately. I apologize for the lack of posts. We are currently working at the new locale the church rents and are hoping to have our first service there this weekend! These past few weeks have been spent carry concrete blocks, bags of cement, and cleaning the building on top of regular ministry commitments. I will hopefully have some photos and video up when I have more time! Thanks so much for all your prayers as things are moving right along with the new location! Well, I thought I would take some time to talk about life down here in Venezuela. Things are run very differently here than in the States at times. We often experience shortages in certain types of food in groceries stores down here. No need to worry too much, I am eating well. However, it isn't always what I want to be eating. For instance right before I arrived in March, there hadn't been sugar in the country for about a month. Just a few weeks back we couldn't buy eggs or milk because there weren't any, and now there are rumors going around that there might not be any beef either. Luckily, most of these shortages last only a few weeks and things get back to normal. I just hope we don't experience anything like this long term. Well, more about the church: On Mother's Day we celebrated with about 115 people in attendance at church! Last week in youth group we had about 35 students! Praise God! I think one of the new girls wants to get baptized soon as well! I will keep you up to date on that as I know more! The language is coming along as I study every day. I am not quite to the point where I can do public speaking, but I am progressing! Praise God! This next week I am going to start math tutoring with one of the girls from the youth group. She is bringing here brother who also needs help and is not a believer. Please pray that this would be a great chance to start a relationship with him and eventually share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him! Thats all for now!
All For God's Glory,
Matt Johnson

When 40% is worth mentioning!

It seems that Wednesday nights are always popular at churches for being prayer night. Well, here in Venezuela is no exception. Every Wednesday night at Siempre Con Cristo church we host a prayer night. It seems that the world church in general has a hard time getting members to attend what might be considered a rather boring time at church. Right now we are blessed to have about 25-30 people in attendance at these prayer times. That might not seem like much but when you consider this comprises about 40% of the entire church, that makes it worth talking about! We are so blessed to have members in our church that are passionate about prayer! Because of this God blessed the church with a new location to rent that more than triples the size of our current location! We are in the process of fixing up the new place and hope to move in in a couple of weeks! I plan to have pictures/video up of the new location soon. I will also post pictures of the old locale so you can get a feel of how awesome this really is! Keep up the prayers! Lives are being change! We celebrated 3 baptisms in April and are baptizing another lady this Saturday!
God Bless,
Matt Johnson

Poco a Poco...

Little by little I am adjusting to life here in Venezuela. The language is coming along as I am learning new words everyday. Every Friday I meet one on one with a language tutor at one of the schools here in Caracas. It has been great working with her and improving my speaking, writing, and reading skills. Little by little we are prepping the new location where the church will be meeting. It is so cool to see God provide for His Church! We can't wait to start holding services in the new locale. We will also have office space which the church desperately needs. Please keep praying that everything would finish well and we would be ready to move into the new place soon!
Little by little I am finishing up the paperwork I need while in the country. I am getting ready to get my Venezuelan ID card and drivers license. Hopefully by the end of next week I will be done with those. It just seems that things move so slowly here. Well, we celebrating another baptism on Saturday! Thanks for all your prayers and support!
To God Goes All the Glory,
Matt Johnson